The invention refers to a control panel for hot beverage dispensing machines, whereby the hot beverage dispensing machine is adapted to prepare and dispense several different beverages, selectable by means of the control panel, which is designed as a touch screen on which icons corresponding to a beverage can be visually displayed.
By means of known control panels for hot beverage dispensing machine, an operator can select a beverage, which in turn is prepared by the hot beverage dispensing machine and thereafter dispensed. Thereby, the preparation is often performed according to a default or pre-selected setting. The control panel can be coupled with a display device showing the selection simultaneously as text or symbol and icon, respectively, resulting in the possibility for the operator to check his input for selecting a beverage or for an individual setting of preparing a beverage. Particularly preferred for this purpose are control panels with integrated display unit, by means of which the operation of a machine is possible by simply actuating of buttons and subsequent display of a result of the input on the screen on the display unit.
In such control panels already in practical use, often symbols, so-called icons representing the beverage, like a cup of coffee, to be prepared by a hot beverage dispensing machine are used as a display for such a time until the beverage is dispensed by the machine, to subsequently being ready for preparing a further or another beverage.
Even in the case of an individual preparation setting selected by an operator, an icon for a certain beverage can be displayed, which can be selected by an operator from a group of preset selection possibilities. Thus, for example, default settings possibilities can be provided as key icons at the edge of the screen; by touching them, an operator selects a setting whereafter an icon corresponding to the touched key icon is displayed in the center of the screen.
The publication U.S. Pat. No. 6,759,072, for example, discloses a networked beverage dispensing machine having a touch screen, on which data can be displayed that have been recalled by an operator from the network and which serves also as a control panel for the beverage dispensing machine. In this case, upon a corresponding activation, icons saved in a storage device are read and visually displayed on the touch screen. Thereby, the icons refer to selection possibilities, preparation processes and/or characteristics of mixed beverages and/or of the beverage dispensing machine and/or of the touch screen.